Survey: PowerPoints still beat Whiteboards for sales convos

When it comes to online presentations and sales, PowerPoint continues to reign. According to a new survey out from Corporate Visions whiteboards are only used about 13% of the time for sales conversations (B2B) even though whiteboards have been shown as more interactive. Comparatively, 33% say they use PowerPoints.

Meanwhile, more than half of those surveyed recently by Aberdeen Group said 'creating meaningful conversations' was a top priority for their business. That study also found whiteboards were considered to lead to a 50% higher lead conversion rate and to be nearly one-third faster to productivity.

Still, Corporate Visions found only 13% using whiteboards regularly. Of those using whiteboards about half say they're created 'ad-hoc' or borrowed from peers. Less than one-quarter say the whiteboards are created and approved by a marketing department.

"It's clear from the results of this survey that visual storytelling techniques like whiteboarding are alarmingly underutilized by both marketing and sales teams," said Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer, Corporate Visions. "87 percent of today's companies are using static techniques, rather than having intimate and visually interactive conversations, which is just what whiteboarding allows companies to do. Marketing and sales teams need to work together to create pre-built whiteboards that are going to differentiate themselves in the sales cycle, which in turn, will help them close more deals."

When whiteboards are created collaboratively between sales staffs and marketing department, there is a better chance for the overall brand message to remain intact. Also of interest from the report, whiteboards:

• Are used by 25% to differentiate between competition
• Are used by 17% to illustrate impact
• Are used by 8% for demand generation
• Are used by 6% to explain implementation options